I hope you enjoyed your first week of deals on PS3 and PS Vita games for our Holiday Essentials Sale. As I mentioned in our previous post, we’re bringing you some of the best PlayStation games at great prices to help you stock up for the holidays.
This week we’re providing you with 16 awesome action/adventure games along with other essential PlayStation titles. For great prices you can take part in Starhawk‘s frenetic space combat and multiplayer battles, relive two of Kojima’s most acclaimed titles in the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, or bend your mind with the award-winning Journey. In addition, PlayStation Plus delivers an extra special deal this week – we’re offering members Retro City Rampage for absolutely nothing. Moreover, Retro City Rampage features Cross-Buy, which means that when you purchase either the PS Vita or PS3 version, you get the other version at no additional cost!
As a reminder, you can save 30%—or up to 50% for PlayStation Plus members—on the action-packed lineup this week. On top of the titles below, we’ll have a whole new set next week to close out the sale and ring in the New Year. Don’t wait, though, because these games will only be on sale for one week—now through 12/30.
This week’s lineup:
- Duke Nukem Forever (Sale: $13.99, PS Plus: $9.80, Regular: $19.99)
- Galaga Legions DX (Sale: $6.99, PS Plus: $4.90, Regular: $9.99)
- Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational Vita (Sale: $12.49, PS Plus: $8.74, Regular: $17.99)
- Journey (Sale: $10.49, PS Plus: $7.35, Regular: $14.99)
- Killzone 3 Multiplayer (Sale: $10.49, PS Plus: $7.35, Regular: $14.99)
- Mafia II (Sale: $13.99, PS Plus: $9.80, Regular: $19.99)
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater – HD Edition PS3 (Sale: $10.49, PS Plus: $7.35, Regular: $14.99)
- Metal Gear Solid HD Collection PS Vita (Sale: $24.49, PS Plus: $17.14, Regular: $34.99)
- Mortal Kombat (Sale: $20.99, PS Plus: $14.70, Regular: $29.99)
- Papo & Yo (Sale: $10.49, PS Plus: $7.35, Regular: $14.99)
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty (Sale: $10.49, PS Plus: $7.35, Regular: $14.99)
- Retro City Rampage (Sale: $10.49, PS Plus: Free, Regular: $14.99)
- Retro City Rampage PS Vita (Sale: $10.49, PS Plus: Free, Regular: $14.99)
- Simpsons The Arcade Game (Sale: $6.99, PS Plus: $4.90, Regular: $9.99)
- Starhawk (Sale: $27.99, PS Plus: $19.60, Regular: $39.99)
- Unit 13 (Sale: $18.49, PS Plus: $12.94, Regular: $26.99)
The holidays may be coming to an end but that won’t stop you from keeping the spirit alive with your new Holiday Essentials games. So go ahead and stock up on these great games!
FIRST
Well, guess we know our new free vita game
Sony this make me sad!
Wow, that is an amazing deal on Hot Shots. Damn. Too bad I already have it. I’ll be grabbing Journey for sure.
Great deals SONY. Thank you. Your the only thing on my Christmas list.
Retro City Rampage. Cool!
The sales though…..meh. Probably pick up Journey. About time I suppose.
I gotta tell ya, after reading complaints for the last two months about how lackluster the free games have been (and mostly disagreeing) and hearing that feedback “just takes time” to trickle through… unless Retro City Rampage is one of several Plus games offered today, then it’s like you guys are trying to piss people off.
At a certain point, it doesn’t matter that feedback “just takes time.” This is THE Christmas update. This was Sony’s time to shine and have Kotaku and all them report on the CRAZY deals Sony is offering today. You should be offering a few big, big games today.
I wonder what the EU Plus is getting.
When is the store actually being updated? Tuesday like normal?
First of all, MERRY CHRISTMAS to Blog’s team and all PlayStation’s users!!!
Second, GREAT discounts. Metal Gear for Vita it’s a MUST BUY for me.
Third, Retro City Rampage for free!!!
Fourth… is there any THE DROP this week?
Fifth… why didn’t you announced the ACIII flash sale this weekend? Almost missed it!!!
BYE!!!
Will not be buying a dime yet again, thanks for the heads up on our free game.. Really can’t wait for the sales to be over, personally, as I doubt anything will pop up that I really want, but I don’t want to risk you putting something on sale in a week that I bought today… Alas, no purchases for a few weeks is difficult.
@ Jongrey: First to be a manure on Christmas Eve. Good onya there Scrooge.
Anyway, good sales, hope there are more discounts this week.
Far Cry 3?? How Come EU gets a 50% deal on it and we don’t :(
Retro City Rampage for Plus! Now that is what I’m talking about! Merry Christmas to those of us with the foresight to not pay $15 when it was released!
Picked up three games from the sale last week and there are still plenty of great deals here as well. Papo & Yo will finally be mind :).
Question… will you make a discount for PLUS subscription like Europe did???
I must renew it next month so I’m waiting you copy that promotion! XD
Did I read correctly in a previous post that there will be one more week of deals? If so, I hope the Unfinished Swan is part of it.
Retro City Rampage got a mediocre 5.5 on IGN… man this sucks… is this the only game on ps plus for vita this week?? i really hope not because this game sucks… any idea what game . i mean real good vita games we are getting this week? if we are getting
EU got a bundle of Journey + Unfinished Swan for the equivalent of the price of Journey alone here in the US. Why only PS Plus users get the 50% discount?
Much better deals in the EU, plus they don’t screw non Plus users like you guys are doing here. Hell they even got 60% off some FULL PS3 games like LBP Karting. And all we get is a 30% discount on some unwanted games (except 2 or 3 games).
@duke301 yeah! patience has its rewards lol, also for people like me that will play it on vita, it´s a bless it is just like 30 mb or something lol
Might get hotshots.
Is there going to be another free vita game this week?
I JUST BOUGHT JOURNEY A WEEK AGO. -_- But for those who didn’t buy it yet, its a great deal. And Retro City Rampage for free? YAY!
Also, Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays) to everyone on the Blog!
Is Mortal Kombat the vanilla or Komplete version?
@ 11 jealous much….
Another crap game for plus oh well glad i didnt waste $50 for the whole year i dont think im going to renew after the 3 months I already have half the games they gave for free and alot of these that are discounted i think i will just buy gravity rush and infamous 2 they are the only games that i dont own (that i like) from insant collection i was hoping we would get mod nation vita or ultimate mvc3 vita but guess i will just get them used and be able to keep them without wasting all the space on my memory card
@17
Aye, Retro City Rampage is a great game in my opinion.
IGN just hates anything that’s different, or not Call of Duty.
What I’m saying here, is don’t let anyone tell what or what isn’t a good game.
(Despite that I just did.. :s)
Play it for yourself to be the judge.
It’s free, so what’ve you got to lose? There’s also the demo, if you wanna play it beforehand.
@12 I would buy Far Cry 3 immediately if it was 50% off for us, too. EU gets some amazing deals.
Unfortunately, nothing for me this week. Hoping for something good in the final week’s deals!
@ 7
EU Plus is getting Mortal Kombat for free next month
This is disappointing… Like seriously retro city rampage, this must be a joke..
Playstation Store Europe is much better than Store USA.
They have a lot of discounts with new games, we have this, Duke Nukem, thanks for this greeeeat game costing only 10 dollars.
And Plus also is much better, they give Mortal Kombat, but we have Retro City Rampage.
Thanks a lot, why it? Just say, please, why?
Damn nothing for me :( I already own 10 of the games of that list.
Simpsons The Arcade and Mafia II will get consideration.
@25 i would have prefered a better or more substancial game for the vita. EU folks got mortal kombat… was hoping for something better after so many weeks of no vita games for ps plus. and now this game. personally it does not interest me. but i really hope that there is more vita game for plus this month. MK would be a fine game and i would not complain… anyone noticed all potential ps plus games are listed in these discounts.. especially for the vita games
finally unit13!!!!will get mgs hd as well and maaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyybbbbbbbbbeeeeeee hot shots for that price
Duke Nukem should be free of charge for everyone.
I keep waiting for Red Dead Redemption, and I keep waiting PSN+ USA be more than a half of the PSN+ EUR is.
@31
Oh yeah, I can totally see where you’re coming from.
I bought PS Plus with the hopes of Vita Exclusive games.
I got Uncharted and Gravity rush, but nothing else so far.
I honest to god hope retro city rampage isn’t the free game for plus this week. Really? Once again I do not have a hdtv for this low quality 2d games i looked up retro city and its no wonder why I never heard of it, it looks like garbage. Please tell me there’s something else for plus this week.
People cry a lot here don’t they?
Yes, RCR isn’t the best game ever, but it’s free. If you only own a Vita, and you bought PS+, you got your money back day 1 anyway. MK is a $20, and isn’t really anything special on Vita, especially compared to other fighters on the system (like BlazBlue, UMvC3, or PS Allstars). As someone that owned it, you’re not really missing out on a lot, and I like the MK franchise.
I don’t get it you guys at Sony can put Metal Gear Solid HD Collection PS Vita on sale but not the PS3 version?
I was hoping for a deal for the PS3 version but instead MGS3 only is on sale which is like one third of the whole collection.
@17: IGN is a mediocre at best website. With some horrendous writers. Their entire LBP Karting review is the guy complaining it isn’t ModNation Racers. And their Ragnarok Odyssey review is by some derp who didn’t get what they expected, so trashed it. Rather than reviewing the games for what they are. They reviewed them for not being something else.
Metacritic, an average of many reviews, has it at 70% for PS3 and 78% Vita.
An average of many opinions is always better than the OPINION of one.
Nice deals….my poor backlog of games just keeps growing.
I am curious though, is there any place where we can voice, or vote on games we want to see ported from ps2/ps1? We all have our own lists for sure. But it would be nice to have some voice in the matter. Usually good choices, but not often ones i’d actually rebuy. Only sometimes.
Still love ps+, money well spent.
when exactly do these deals start because now apparently doesn’t mean right now x_x
I’d honesty rather replay GTA and GTA II again then to download this digital waste of space.
@fardeenah every game is a potential for plus and when people don’t get the one they want they whine and complain. we got a fighting game last week for ps3 and everybody whined and complained and this week we have people asking for mortal kombat…… i don’t get it….. I will admit that EU is definitely getting the better plus games but at the end of the day it is still a good service and you need to take the bad with the good. don’t think they want to have people getting plus and just sitting on every game just because they are hoping it will go free for plus.
WOW, thanks Sony!
Metal Gear Solid HD Vita for just over $17 and Retro City Rampage for free! I’ve seldom been so happy to be a PS Plus member.
And for anyone on the fence about buying Journey, GET IT NOW. It is already a great deal at its regular price, so this sale just makes it a must buy. The game is deservedly being considered the best of year.
Enjoy your deals and thanks again Sony!
Oh well. Nothing for me this week. It’s not that the sales are bad it’s just bad luck for me. I was hoping to be tempted to spend all of my PSN christmas money on something. Journey is great for those that still haven’t tried it and Killzone 3 multiplayer is a fantastic price so maybe more people will jump into that. Mostly just disappointed that I already have Retro City Rampage.
I’ll probably post this again on a thread that Morgan will see since he’s good at passing things along, but here’s the idea I just got for PS+. I think the biggest underlying issue with PS+ is the fear of a game being given away for free after you buy it. Not only does it force some to hesitate when buying content, but it also makes for a disappointing update when you already own it. Obviously getting something in return for already owning the game would be the best solution for this, and I think it would even be enough for me if it was something as simple as an exclusive avatar for that game letting it be known that you supported it before it was free.
RCR is a nice Christmas freebie. Thanks!
Also nice deal on the MGS Collection for Vita. May grab that.
Every single time I buy something, it gets on sale a couple of weeks later. Fell for it with Journey. D:
@Adray27 well they’re updating the store today for the holidays so I’ll assume around 2pm-5pm PT bc they’re probably going to push it out asap to let everyone out early
1 word for this +Mass PSN+ release :
DISAPPOINTING………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Really………………
EU really have 1000 times better deals than us….
Just crazy……………………
About MGS Call, if I buy Vita version, I receive PS3 version?
Pierre, please you answer me?